Several weeks before her family’s American Airlines flight to Portugal, Ashley Macus learned there had been an aircraft change. That switch left the family of six without the assigned seats together Macus had confirmed months earlier. Most disturbingly, her two little boys, ages 7 and 8, no longer had any seats at all.
American Airlines had more surprises for the mom of three, who was also traveling with her one-year-old baby.
When Macus asked American Airlines to restore her sons’ seat assignments, a supervisor said it was impossible. Instead, the AA agent offered two unappealing options:
- Wait until the day of check-in to get the boys’ seat assignments. On the plane, she could ask strangers to swap so the family could sit together on the overnight flight. -or-
- Cancel the flight for a full refund of the $18,349 Premium Economy tickets.
Faced with no better choices, the frazzled mom reluctantly picked the second option, canceling the entire trip.
It would be several weeks before Macus would learn the truth about her $18,349: it wasn’t on the way. Per the terms of the family’s nonrefundable tickets, American Airlines had processed the jumbo refund as soon-to-expire flight credit.
Macus doesn’t think that’s fair. She says the American Airlines manager promised a cash refund, not flight credit. Beyond that, her family of six never wanted to cancel their trip to Portugal in the first place. The airline’s inability to provide their group with the premium economy seat assignments they originally purchased forced the cancellation.
After repeatedly asking American Airlines to convert the flight credit to cash, Macus asked Consumer Rescue for help. She hoped our team could intervene and convince the airline to fulfill the AA agent’s refund promise.
If only there was some way to prove what the agent said to Macus that inspired her to cancel $18,349 in nonrefundable tickets.
Maybe there is… let’s find out.
Here’s this family’s frustrating experience.
Taking a family vacation abroad with American Airlines
Last October, Macus and her husband decided to take a trip abroad with their three children (ages 7, 8, and 1). It was an ambitious undertaking. But the couple enlisted the help of Macus’s mother-in-law to assist.
“I wanted to make sure we were all together on the flights,” Macus told me. “We spent a significant amount of money to make sure that our seats were all together on the overnight flight.”
The original aircraft, an American Airlines 787-8 Dreamliner, has 28 seats in a 2-3-2 configuration in Premium Economy. Macus selected six seats together in rows 8 and 9, paying a hefty $3,058 per ticket.
Confident that the flight portion of the trip was set in stone, Macus began making reservations for the rest of the trip. She had no idea that an aircraft change would throw a wrench in her carefully made plans five months later.
Surprise! American Airlines can switch planes and your seats without notification
A little over a month before the family was scheduled to set off on their adventure, Macus was making final preparations for the trip. She signed into her American Airlines account intending to print out the itinerary. That’s when she noticed something startling.
“Our flights were the same, but now we only had four seats assigned,” Macus told me. “Then I realized my sons had no seat assignments attached to their tickets.”
Assuming it was just a glitch in the system, Macus attempted to select their seats again. But when the seating chart for the flight appeared there were no available seats to select in the Premium Economy section.
Without any notification to the passengers on the flight, American Airlines switched the aircraft to a 787-9. On this Dreamliner there are only 21 seats in the Premium Economy section. The seats Macus had originally selected for her little boys were not part of that cabin on this plane.
I called American Airlines immediately and I explained the problem. The AA agent told me she couldn’t do anything about it and that I could sort it out on the day of the flight. I told her that was unacceptable and I wasn’t willing to hope things would work out. No mom would want to risk their children being separated from the family on an international overnight flight. That’s outrageous. I booked the flight and paid to confirm seats together to avoid this kind of stressful situation.
Despite her pleas to simply open up whatever seats they would open up on the day of travel, the AA agent continued to say it was impossible. That caused Macus to rightfully become concerned that there may be no seats at all for her sons on the day of the flight either.
American Airlines: “If you cancel the flight, we’ll give you a refund.”
Macus wasn’t yet willing to give up on their family’s vacation. So she asked to speak to a supervisor who promptly reconfirmed what the customer service agent had already told Macus.
The AA manager explained she had limited options. When Macus said she wasn’t willing to take the “wait and see” approach, the representative asked her if she would like to cancel the flight.
“I asked her [the American Airlines supervisor] if I would receive a refund for the flight. She said “yes,” and so I agreed to cancel,” Macus explained. “We can go to Portugal some other time. This had become too complicated and stressful.”
Next, the AA agent processed the cancellation and told Macus she should see the refund in “4-6 weeks,” according to Macus. That timeline was the first clue that something wasn’t quite right about this refund offer. Electronic refunds in 2025 should appear quite quickly.
American Airlines: “Sorry, your cancellation doesn’t qualify for a cash refund.”
Because of the dollar amount that was on the line, Macus was understandably concerned about the status of the refund. She was keeping a close eye on her credit card statement and becoming more anxious by the day when no pending refund appeared from American Airlines.
Then she signed into her American Airlines account and was shocked to see that a “refund” had been issued. But that refund was in the form of a $3,058 flight credit for each member of the family. Even worse, the flight credit had a looming expiration date.
Fact: American Airlines flight credit expires one year after the date of the original ticket purchase. The replacement flight must begin on or before the expiration date of the flight credit.
If Macus didn’t want to lose the $18,359 she’d have to scramble to plan the family’s replacement trip right away.
“I emailed American Airlines and I told them that this was a mistake. I never wanted flight credit and I never wanted to cancel the trip. The only reason we canceled was because of the aircraft change AND the AA agent’s promise of a cash refund.”
Unfortunately, for Macus, American Airlines appeared to have no record of the agent’s refund offer. But what they did have was the terms and conditions of the family’s nonrefundable tickets.
What appeared to be an auto-generated response to her request, an anonymous author told Macus that her “schedule change” didn’t qualify for a refund. This response completely missed the mark since a schedule change was not at the heart of this problem.
With nearly $20,000 on the line, Macus was unwilling to continue this battle on her own. That’s when she sent her request for assistance to Consumer Rescue.
Consumer Rescue investigates: Can American Airlines issue a flight credit instead of a refund?
When Macus reached out to Consumer Rescue, she was in a panic. American Airlines had her money and had converted it to a future flight credit. That was something she didn’t agree to or want.
Now, of course, I’m completely surprised by the fact that [the American Airlines supervisor] told me that my card was being refunded, and now it is not. While in the meantime I had to cancel the entire itinerary for our international trip. 18k is a large amount of money and not something I ever would have spent on flights normally, but as a parent of young kids we spent the money to ensure we were with our children and that they were located directly next to us in the area of the plane that we had paid for and reserved.
We would like the money we paid for the flights to be returned to us as the initial customer service supervisor promised when she cancelled the flight for us. Can you help?”
Ashley Macus to Consumer Rescue
Unfortunately, when I read through the paper trail Macus sent me, I was surprised that an American Airlines supervisor had offered a refund under the circumstances. Not getting seat assignments isn’t something that triggers a cash refund if a passenger chooses to cancel a flight.
Related: No, a British Airways flight upgrade will never end in a refund for you
It also seemed odd that the airline would risk losing $20,000 in revenue instead of simply moving some seat assignments around. Unless of course, the agent wasn’t risking the loss of that revenue and was instead simply converting it to a flight credit – money still in the airline’s “pocket.”
And that’s exactly what the agent did and now there was no record available to the passenger to prove what was offered. It was time to ask our always helpful American Airlines agent if her team could listen to the recorded call.
Related: If an airline convinces you to cancel a nonrefundable ticket, can it keep your money?
Asking American Airlines to listen to the recorded call
As with most airlines, American Airlines records all calls for “quality and training purposes.”
But customers should make no mistake, those recordings are to protect the airline, not the customer. So although the call is recorded, consumers should never assume they’ll be able to use it to support a complaint. Except under extraordinary circumstances, those calls aren’t shared with the customer.
For that reason, it’s wise for passengers to keep their own notes about the details discussed during phone calls with customer service. This is especially true if an agent offers something that seems to deviate from the norm – like a $18,349 cash refund over missing seat assignments.
Related: I recorded my call with American Airlines. Here’s the truth
Unfortunately, Macus didn’t get the name of the supervisor who had made the refund promise to her. But what she did have was a screenshot of the date and time of the phone call. And although consumers can’t easily get an airline to pull call records, our executive contact at American Airlines can.
Soon I had very good news for Macus.
The good news: American Airlines confirms the refund offer
Within the day, American Airlines pulled the call between Macus and the AA supervisor. That recorded conversation proved that Macus canceled the flight only after being assured of a cash refund. It’s unclear why she then processed the cancellation in such a way that led Macus to being awarded flight credits.
However, after listening to the phone call, American Airlines immediately voided the flight credit and issued the $18,349 refund back to Macus’s credit card. Macus is, of course, thrilled.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you so very much! I really appreciate all of your help and using your connections to help this reach someone that was able to help remedy the situation. I truly can’t thank you enough!
Ashley Macus
And with that, we can happily add one more successful consumer rescue to our files. 🛟😀
Related: You should never try to sell your American Airlines flight credit or points. Here’s why
What to do before accepting a flight credit instead of a cash refund
Unfortunately, good customer service is becoming quite rare across the travel industry. It seems that more and more customer service agents are poorly trained, unfamiliar with their companies policies, offer things they aren’t authorized to give, and are generally uninterested in solving consumer problems. Even worse, much customer service is now outsourced to Artificial Intelligence – which often just sends consumers on an endless loop of unhelpful “help.”
In this case, had the executive team at American Airlines not pulled that call, it is unlikely that Macus would have received anything but the jumbo heap of flight credit.
Here’s what customers should do before settling for a flight credit in lieu of a cash refund.
Review the terms of your ticket
I know from mediating thousands of airline refund requests over the years that travelers often have not read the terms of their ticket purchase. That oversight leaves the passenger to cancel nonrefundable tickets when that decision will leave them with, in the best-case scenario, a future flight credit with time-limited, restrictive redemption rules. In the worst-case situation, they will forfeit the entire cost of the ticket.
Related: American Airlines changed my flight without telling me! Do I have to accept this?
Unfortunately, these travelers only delve deeply into the contract of carriage of their airline ticket purchase AFTER they discover they’ve misunderstood it.
Always make sure you understand the terms and conditions you’re agreeing to when you make an airline ticket purchase. That will help you identify unusual refund offers by careless or unaware airline customer service agents.
Fact: Basic Economy tickets almost always end in a 100% penalty if the passenger changes or cancels any part of the trip. Travelers should approach Basic Economy tickets with extra caution.
Ask for the agent’s name and restate the offer
If an airline offers your something that seems to deviate from the terms of your ticket, make sure you get that person’s name and title. Write down everything that was said to you. Repeat the offer so that it is on the recorded line. As Macus did, if you’ve made the call from your cell phone, take a screenshot of the time, date and length of the call. This will make it easier for the airline to pull the recording later if it becomes necessary.
Don’t cite nonexistent rules and regulations
One misstep that Macus did in her complaint to American Airlines was to cite a Department of Transportation rule that doesn’t exist. She, like many other airline passengers, interpreted a proposal made by the previous DOT administration about family seating rules as law. Unfortunately, as of today there are still no laws or regulations that require airlines to ensure that family members (including children) are seated together.
Repeatedly over the years I see consumers erroneously citing non-existent or mistakenly interpreted laws and regulations to support their complaint. Before you make any formal complaint to an airline to force a refund, do a little research. Don’t rely on Facebook groups, Reddit threads or Quora for your information. Remember those sites are all filled with anonymous, user-generated data which you can not presume to be true.
Also, you should also never rely on AI-generated overviews in the Google search results to support your complaint without independently fact-checking. Unfortunately, the information provided there is often wrong and misleading.
Fact: Citing incorrect and nonexistent rules will never help you fix your consumer problem.
Ask Consumer Rescue for guidance and direct help
If you hit a non-bending customer service wall as you try to fix your problem, send your request for help to our consumer advocacy team. We’re here to rescue consumers from their problems. Our help is always fast, friendly, and free! (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer reporter, advocate, and founder of ConsumerRescue.org)
